Intel launches monster Core i9 chip for laptops
Some powerful, Intel-based portable computers are coming in the near future.
At an event in Beijing on Tuesday, Intel unveiled its first-ever, 8th-gen, Core i9 processor for laptops.
The Intel Core i9-8950HK has six cores and 12 threads, making it Intel's first hexa-core CPU for laptops. It's clocked at 2.9GHz but comes unlocked (meaning you can overclock it) and is capable of turbo frequencies (Intel's lingo for boosting performance a little bit more as long as the processor is not overheated) of up to 4.8GHz. The 12MB of cache and support for DDR4-2666 RAM should also help speed things up.
In real-life terms, Intel's 8th-generation processor brings significantly faster gaming and 4K video editing; for the i9-8950HK specifically, Intel claims an overall 29% performance increase over the previous generation of Intel processors.
The new processor also comes with Intel's Optane tech which increases memory and storage performance, as well as Intel's 300 Series Chipset, which has integrated fast Gigabit Wi-Fi.
Here's the bottom line: This chip is significantly better, in most areas, than any Intel chip found in a laptop today. Once this baby starts making it into actual laptops (likely gaming-oriented beasts, but we wouldn't mind seeing it in Apple's MacBook Pro, for example), it will be a very interesting option for all the power users out there.
For the less ambitious, the company also launched new, 8th-gen Core i7 and i5 processors (all of the new processors are based on the company's Coffee Lake platform). The new i7 chips have 6 cores and 9MB of cache, while the i5 processors have 4 cores and 8MB of cache.
Topics Intel
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
